The panel, titled “How Live Events Are Fueling Tourism, Jobs and City Growth”, explored why cities are now actively competing to become major concert and event destinations
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India’s top brand innovators, experiential architects and marketing leaders came together at the 7th edition of the BW Everything Experiential Marketing Summit 2025, unpacking how the booming live events industry is reshaping tourism, jobs and urban economies.
The panel, titled “How Live Events Are Fueling Tourism, Jobs and City Growth”, explored why cities are now actively competing to become major concert and event destinations.
India’s Concert Economy: “We’ve Arrived”
Opening the discussion, industry veteran Rajeev Jain highlighted how dramatically India’s concert economy has accelerated in the last two to three years. With major tours, sold-out arenas and global artists entering the market in quick succession, he observed that India has undeniably “arrived” as a serious player in global live entertainment.
From “Party Organisers” to Risk-Taking Industry Builders
Shaju Ignatius, Chief Evangelist – Live Events, Laqshya Media Group, reflected on his three-decade journey in the business. He recalled that back in 1995–96, the industry wasn’t even called event management,“we were known as party organisers,” he said. The concept of experiential marketing didn’t exist, and the live events ecosystem was still unstructured.
Shaju described the live business as a space for “brave hearts,” driven by risk-taking: promoters step out in the hope that tickets will sell and sponsors will come. His first event was a Deep Purple concert, followed by one of India’s most iconic shows,the Michael Jackson concert in 1996. Despite the huge loss incurred because tickets weren’t sold at the time, he said the event opened the doors for India’s live entertainment industry.
The boom, he added, arrived post-COVID, powered by Gen Z’s willingness to buy tickets and value experiences. “Experience has become the new currency,” he said, and that shift is the backbone of today’s surge in live events.
“We Don’t Create Events, We Create Experiences”: The ABP Approach
Speaking next, Rajat Uppal, Business Head – BAE, shared how experience-led entertainment has become central to their strategy. He explained that his journey into live events began about a year ago at another media house, where he launched a successful millennial-focused tour.
At ABP, he said, the focus is clear: “We don’t curate events, we create experiences.” ABP’s newly launched live vertical has already announced a 10-city Sunidhi Chauhan “I Am Home” India Tour, kicking off in Mumbai on 24 December and concluding in Kolkata in March. Several more tours are in the pipeline.
With the strength of ABP’s nationwide reach, Rajat believes the consumer events vertical is only getting started. Indian artists are now selling out shows at levels comparable to global acts, proving the massive demand for homegrown live entertainment across Gen Z, Gen A and millennial audiences.
The Real Impact: Tourism, City Revenues and Analytics
The panel also examined the deep economic impact of concerts on cities. Responding to a question about post-event measurement, Shaju explained that the ecosystem now relies heavily on analytics,right pricing, the right city-artist match, and strong ticketing partnerships all determine success. Not every artist sells in every city, he noted, even if they are among India’s biggest names.
Shaju highlighted global examples to show the scale of impact. Taylor Swift’s 2024 Eras Tour generated $5.7 billion in tourism-driven economic impact, while Beyoncé’s tour generated $4.5 billion. These numbers underscore that major artists don’t just drive revenue for promoters,they transform entire cities and even national economies. He added that Singapore’s strategic move to secure Taylor Swift exclusively is proof of how cities are now competing fiercely for global tours.
India’s Event Destinations Are Rising
With massive youth demand, rising spending power, global-standard production and increasingly experience-centric audiences, India’s cities are entering a new era of live entertainment. From tourism boosts to job creation, the panel agreed that concerts are no longer just cultural events,they are economic drivers that shape how cities grow, compete and define themselves in the global landscape.